Chandler Park Dental Care Bowling Green, KY 42104 Cosmetic, Sedation & Family Dentistry
Opening bottle caps or plastic packaging with your teeth may be convenient, but this is one habit that makes dentists cringe. Using your teeth as tools can cause them to crack or chip. Instead, keep scissors and bottle openers handy. Bottom line, your teeth should only be used for eating.
It’s never too early to protect teeth. Giving a baby a bedtime bottle of juice, milk, or formula, can put new teeth on a path to decay. The baby may become used to falling asleep with the bottle in his or her mouth, bathing the teeth in sugars overnight. It's best to keep bottles out of the crib.
Just because cough drops are sold in the medicine aisle doesn't mean they’re healthy. Most are loaded with sugar. So after soothing your throat with a lozenge, be sure to brush well. Whether the sugar comes from a cough drop or a hard candy, it reacts with the sticky plaque that coats your teeth. Then bacteria in the plaque convert the sugar into an acid that eats away at tooth enamel. Hello, cavities.
Tongue piercings may be trendy, but biting down on the metal stud can crack a tooth. Lip piercings pose a similar risk. And when metal rubs against the gums, it can cause gum damage that may lead to tooth loss. The mouth is also a haven for bacteria, so piercings raise the risk of infections and sores. Bottom line, discuss the health risks with your dentist first.
Whether you play
football, hockey, or any other contact sport, don't get in the game without a
mouth guard. This is a piece of molded plastic that protects the upper row of
teeth. Without it, your teeth could get chipped or even knocked out when the
action gets rough. Self-fitting mouth guards may be purchased at a store, or
you can have one custom made by your dentist.
It’s natural and sugar free, so you
might think ice is harmless. But munching on hard, frozen cubes can chip or
even crack your teeth. And if your mindless chomping irritates the soft tissue
inside a tooth, regular toothaches may follow. Hot foods and cold foods may
trigger quick, sharp jabs of pain or a lingering toothache. Next time you get
the urge for ice, chew some sugarless gum instead.
Regular dental exams not only help to decrease a patient's risk of oral
diseases, such as cavities and periodontal (gum) disease, but they may also
help to diagnose other, sometimes life-threatening, medical conditions. 
Your oral health routine should always
include brushing your tongue with your toothbrush or using a tongue scraper,
which you can find in the dental products aisle at the drugstore. That’s
important because foods can get stuck in the grooves of your tongue, causing
bacteria to grow. Other oral health problems that can develop if you don't clean your tongue are a bad taste
in your mouth, staining on your tongue, and bad breath, Abayon says.
You already know that in
order to avoid cavities and more serious dental problems, you have to take good
care of your teeth. But consistent brushing and flossing habits do more than
just protect your oral health — they also help keep a host of other serious
conditions at bay. Heart disease and stroke, for instance, have both been
linked to poor dental hygiene.
